Peru on your own
Inca citadels perched in the clouds, canyons twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, a lake at 3,812 m and a desert that plunges into the Pacific: the country where every bend changes altitude and world.
When to go
Andean dry season May to September: crystal skies, freezing nights at altitude, high season at Machu Picchu (book ahead!). Rainy season December to March: muddy trails, the Inca Trail closed in February, but green mountains and near-empty sites. On the coast, the calendar flips: the garúa (sea mist) drowns Lima from May to November, while the austral summer (December-March) is radiant there. April and October-November are the golden months everywhere.
What it costs
Still gentle by European standards: car rental €40-70/day (SUV advised in the sierra), fuel around €1.15-1.30/L (sold by the gallon, ~16-18 soles), decent hotels €30-70, premium night buses €20-35 per leg. Tickets are the real budget line: Machu Picchu ~€40/person, the Ollantaytambo-Aguas Calientes train €60-150 return, Cusco's boleto turístico ~€32. Budget €2,000-3,200 for two over 15 days excluding flights.
Driving & transport
Right-hand driving, SOAT (local insurance) compulsory, an international permit recommended at checkpoints. The traps: anarchic urban driving in Lima and Cusco (avoid it — collect the car on the way out of town), horn as language, unmarked speed bumps at every village entrance, cash tolls on the Panamericana, garúa fog on the coast and night falling at 6 pm year-round. Never drive at night in the mountains: unguarded cliff edges, trucks without lights, livestock on the road. Fill up before every pass — stations are scarce above 4,000 m.
Peru stacks three countries into one: the desert coast where the Panamericana runs between dunes and ocean, the Andean sierra where passes top 4,800 m among llamas and Inca cities, and the first breath of Amazonia behind every eastern ridge. Travelling independently, you compose your own altiplano: Cusco and the Sacred Valley as base camp, the Colca canyon and its condors, Titicaca and its islands, the Cordillera Blanca for turquoise glacial lakes — and the seaside-desert interlude from Paracas to Nazca.
Here, independence doesn't necessarily mean a steering wheel: a rental car shines on the south coast and in the Sacred Valley, but the long Andean legs (Cusco-Puno, Arequipa-Colca, Lima-Huaraz) are also brilliantly served by premium night buses — 160° lie-flat seats, cheaper than a hotel night. The trip's real co-pilot is altitude: you plan your stages like a mountaineer, climbing progressively.
The destinations that matter
6No. 023 to 4 nightsSacred Valley and Machu PicchuA sacred river between two walls of peaks, Inca terraces clinging to the mountainsides and, at the end of the rails, the continent's most famous citadel: the beating heart of the trip.No. 032 to 3 nights (including 1 in Arequipa)Colca Canyon and ArequipaA canyon twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, condors skimming the terraces at head height and villages where time stood still: the south's most spectacular high-altitude drive.No. 042 nightsLake TiticacaAn inland sea at 3,812 m, reed islands that have floated for centuries and communities who weave their lives like their textiles: the world's highest navigable lake is a journey within the journey.No. 053 to 4 nightsCordillera Blanca and HuarazTwenty peaks above 6,000 m lined up over a green valley, turquoise lagoons at the foot of glaciers: the world's highest tropical range is a walker's paradise — and a driver's vertigo.
No. 062 to 3 nightsSouth coast: Paracas, Huacachina and NazcaAn absolute desert falling into a cold, fish-rich ocean, a palm oasis ringed by giant dunes and undeciphered geoglyphs: the southern Panamericana is the country's easiest — and strangest — road trip.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Peru on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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